Back in July, I blogged about the NY City Council passing legislation that would allow office workers to bring their bikes into buildings if there is a freight elevator and enough space. This law goes in effect tomorrow! Here's to hoping that this will increase ridership, safety, and security for all bike riders!

Transportation Alternatives has a handy dandy guide for indoor bicycle parking!

http://www.transalt.org/campaigns/bike/parking/indoor

This week, the New York City Council passed the Bikes in Buildings Bill, which requires commercial landlords to allow office workers to bring their bikes into buildings if there is a freight elevator and enough space. For many New Yorkers, the lack of safe parking for their bicycles was a key reason why they chose not to bike to work. This is a great step in moving towards increased ridership and safety. To make biking a truly viable option, the next step is for buildings to allot space for storage and estabiish an efficient way for cyclists to transport their bikes. Ride on!

 

 

 

New York City’s Economic Development Corporation is moving ahead with its plans to redevelop the East River Waterfront--a 2-mile stretch of waterfront at the borders of Chinatown and Lower East Side. 

Currently, the East River Waterfront is underutilized and in disrepair.  I have facilitated one of a series of visioning workshops engaging community members in the discussion of what should be built there.  We hope that development reflects the needs of the community.

What are your ideas for activities and events on the waterfront? What can be added to improve the recreational and civic amenities of New York City’s Lower East Side/Chinatown? If you’re not from New York, what activities do you (want to) enjoy by the waterfront? Brainstorm and influence a major development project!

 

Here's a picture of the area of concern.

I completed my freshman year of college in the very loveable city of Portland, OR. Though I moved to Portland, Maine the following year to finish college, I still have a habit of shamelessly gushing about the west coast edition. I just couldn’t get enough of the hip young energy, the edgy art scene, the wild street performances, the absurd and passionate people, the incredible music, the crazy welded bikes, and the street layout.

“Wait, the street layout?” you ask.

Yeah, the street layout.

See, I’ve been interested in urban design ever since I began riding bikes for transportation. A city’s bike-ability plays a huge part in whether or not I would consider living there. I also take into account public transit systems and the strength of local bike scenes when forming my opinions about different locations.

[This is PDX. Note the wide sidewalks, the tree-lined street, pedestrian zones free of trash, bike racks for parking, and a covered bus stop with little bars for people to lean against. This sort of arrangement encourages alternative forms of transportation.]

Portland, OR (I like to call it PDX, a widely accepted nickname based upon its three-letter airport code) exhibits a unique structure; city planners deliberately designed—and continue to improve—the downtown region to increase biking, walking, and public transit use while discouraging car traffic. For this reason, PDX is often cited as a model city in discussions about sustainable urban design.

Smart design means thinking about transportation from a range of different perspectives. It involves viewing the world from a pedestrian’s point of view, a cyclist’s, a wheelchair user, and a car driver.

If you want to encourage walking, you should build wide sidewalks with lots of trees for shade. Provide benches for resting, water fountains for drinking, and perhaps even a public restroom for alleviating. Make sure public transit systems run near heavy pedestrian zones so that people can quickly and easily make it back home. Include pretty things for walkers to look at, such as flowers or public art. Install trashcans and pick up stray litter. Fix uneven sidewalks, fill in holes, and make sure that the transition between sidewalk and road is a nice even slope (this is especially important for people in wheelchairs). Build clean crosswalks and slow neighborhood traffic.

Here’s how to slow traffic. Maintain single lane roads in heavy pedestrian areas. Confound drivers by making lots of one-ways, twisting streets around, and building speed bumps. These elements naturally slow drivers down and discourage people from driving in the first place. Also, make on-street parking virtually impossible to find.

[Side note: Much has been written about the controversy over free parking. I’m convinced that there is no such thing as free parking; we pay for it in taxes and pay for it in public space.]

Once you’ve effectively slowed traffic, the streets seem friendlier to cyclists. Build upon this strength by constructing bike lanes (ones that don’t run directly next to a row of parked cars—dooring is a great way to hospitalize your population of cyclists). Fix potholes and make sure all road grates run perpendicular to traffic (skinny wheels can fall into some types of grates). Keep bike lanes clear of dirt, sticks, broken glass, etc. Provide bicycle parking. Put up “Share the Road” or yellow bicycle signs.

These are just a few ideas. I’m sure that others have many more clever urban design concepts to help us create a healthy, physically active populace while encouraging sustainable transportation in our cities.

PDX has a killer street layout. How about you?